THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY, NEW MEXICO 



By Edgar Lee Hewett 



PHYSIOGRAPHIC conditions are essentially forrelative with 

 facts of culture. Physical and psychic causes are to be held in 

 the closest possible relation if we are correctly to interpret the 

 intellectual remains of the native peoples of America, whether in 

 the form of myth, ritual, and symbolism of plains and desert tribes 

 or in architectural, sculptural, pictorial, and glyphic remains of the 

 Mexican and Central American cultures. This briefly is the reason 

 for beginnin<z; this series of studies on the archeology ajid ethnology 

 of the Rio Cirantle valley with a discussion of the j)hysiography of 

 the region under investigation. These physical facts are presented 

 in order that in a final synthesis of forces bearing on the culture 

 history of the Rio Grande valley the student may have at hand 

 wider knowledge of basic correlative conditions. The climate with 

 its physical and psychic influences, the soil and its potentialities, 

 the geologic structure of the country and its relation to the simplest 

 problems of welfare, are all phenomena that must be reckoned within 

 the study of man in the cultural process. 



For such a study the Rio Grande valley affords exceptional facili- 

 ties. It is an important })art of a large and varied climatic province 

 usually designated "the Southwest," in former times often spoken 

 of as "the American Desert." Its climatic conditions are peculiarly 

 definite, its geologic history is expressed clearly, and its physical 

 structure strongly marked. The relation of such an environment 

 to human activity in its physical aspects, as house-building, house 

 life, and occupation, is obvious, while its influence on social organiza- 

 tion, symbolic art, ritual, ceremony, all the phenomena of the religious 

 life was, though less conspicuous, probably no less coercive. All the 

 sources necessary to the study of human life in the valley (hiring a 

 long period are present. There are a wealth of well-preserved arch- 

 eologic remains marking every stage of the pre-European epoch and 

 much of similar character belonging to tlie period following the 

 Spanish invasion. Living in the valley are Pueblo communities that 

 have existed here for centuries, related to the ancient population 

 in manner and degree not fully established, still conserving in myth, 

 symbolic art, religious observance, and social order, the culture of the 

 ancients. In addition to this there is yet to be recovered a wealth 

 of documentaiy histoiy of the period of Spanish conquest which is 

 as essential to the completion of the record as is either of the lines 



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